Tuesday, January 24, 2006

THINGS I WONDER

Why are left-handed folks called Southpaws? Shouldn't it be Westpaw or Eastpaw? Are right-handed people considered Northpaws? Maybe Southpaw is supposed to be a polite way to say "the other hand," since we wouldn't want to say folks are either right-handed or wrong-handed. There's just something about using the word Southpaw to describe lefties that doesn't work for me. Southpaw sounds like a guy who's always got his hand down his pants...which I guess would make me a southpaw. I think that would make all guys southpaws, since hand-in-lap-nesting is a genetically encoded trait common to all men.

1 comment:

Baseball is the origin of southpaw. Stadiums, ballparks never had the outfield side being on the south, towards the sun. Usually south was on the first base side, the side where a lefty would throw from. Hence, southpaw.